


Under the Light of a Thousand Stars

by blissblossoms



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Howons, Light Angst, M/M, everyone outside of jaehwan & sewoon are only mentioned, only rated T for alcohol consumption (not underage)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 02:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11545473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blissblossoms/pseuds/blissblossoms
Summary: Jaehwan stopped talking and swallowed. The words had come avalanching out of his mouth, like some kind of natural disaster he had no control over. For the second time that night, Jaehwan was struck by the urgent desire to die. The entire time Sewoon had remained silent with his head tilted up toward the night sky.“You don’t have to be lonely,” Sewoon said in a pleasant, unaffected tone. — Jaehwan/Sewoon, in which Jaehwan is hopeless and Sewoon is too good to be true.





	Under the Light of a Thousand Stars

This was quite possibly the worst night Jaehwan had ever experienced in his life.

Yes, the cool air was refreshing against his skin, and the stars were splayed out before him in full view. And, true, Jaehwan had the day off school and work tomorrow, which allowed him to stay out for as long as he pleased. But Jaehwan was also currently stuck in a tree, a decent height above the ground, the buzz of the beer he drank earlier still beating around his brain.

Somehow, he had been drunk enough to climb onto the tree with no hesitation, but now faced with the prospect of getting _down_ , Jaehwan was far too sober. To muster enough courage to jump and risk breaking his back would require the recklessness that accompanied Jaehwan’s eleventh drink or so. He let out a groan that seemed to fade into the sounds of the summer night around him.

Okay, Jaehwan reasoned that this wasn’t actually the worst situation that alcohol had landed him in. There was that one time at the height of his Seventeen obsession, when Jaehwan dedicated a solid hour to learning the choreography to _Boom Boom_ , recorded himself dancing, and then uploaded the video to all of his social medias. The next morning, in the blur of his hangover, Jaehwan had deleted all traces of the video, but not before literally everybody he knew had already saved it. He still received clips of the incriminating video to this day, and the utter humiliation that came along with it never went away.

Or, maybe, there was that time at Yoon Jisung’s beach house party when Jaehwan suffered an embarrassing defeat at beer pong against Choi Minki who had probably consumed half his body weight in vodka lemonade at that point. After the game Jaehwan promptly threw up on the fancy throw pillows that most likely costed more than his month’s salary. Mercifully only a handful of people had seen him, and they all probably had forgotten by the next day, but still, Jaehwan lost to drunk _Minki._

Come to think of it, Jaehwan wasn’t completely sure how he had ended up at Jisung’s party. He tended to keep to himself, occasionally opting to hang out with Minhyun and Jonghyun. While everyone else had their set friend group, Jaehwan was independent (and maybe the tiniest bit lonely). Most likely, Jaehwan had found out about the party from that monstrosity of a group chat, the one that included literally all one hundred and one students in the school. There were several regrettable cases in which Jaehwan heard his phone’s small _ping_ and naturally assumed that someone actually wanted to talk to him only to unlock his screen to a barrage of outdated memes and ruthless, caps-locked insults. Actually, Jaehwan was surprised his phone wasn’t currently blowing up with messages; late at night was when the chat normally thrived, so it was strange—

The realization hit him at once, and Jaehwan silently cursed himself for being so stupid. This was the 21st century, Jaehwan had a phone on him at all times. He fished his phone out of his pockets and typed an urgent text message: _hi Mminhyin, im in s trree psl heop me._ The keyboard blurred within his eyesight and Jaehwan’s fingers fumbled gracelessly on the screen.

Seconds later, the reply came: _Lol jaehwan I told u not to drink too much, what kind of nonsense r u saying. Get some sleep I’ll visit u tmrw morning._

Jaehwan groaned in frustration. The night was starting to grow colder, and Jaehwan faced the unpleasant thought that he might have to spend the night here, freezing and drunk in a tree. In a last ditch attempt, he decided to call Minhyun and explain that yes, he really was stuck in a tree, and yes, next time he won’t go overboard with the alcohol.

While bringing the phone to his ear, Jaehwan’s arm bumped against the trunk, and he lost his grip. Frozen in horror, Jaehwan watched helplessly as his phone, his last saving grace, slipped out of his hand and fell to the grass without so much as a thud. Jaehwan could do nothing but accept his fate, so he shifted his weight to lean back against the trunk of the tree, nestling into the branches. Might as well make himself comfortable if he was going to spend a night here.

As if directly on cue, the sound of guitar music played somewhere in the distance, a soundtrack to Jaehwan’s suffering. A voice began to accompany the strumming, soft and soothing like waves rolling on the ocean. As a guitarist and singer himself, Jaehwan appreciated this person’s talent, whoever it was. He closed his eyes to listen.

Abruptly, the sound stopped. The guitarist plucked several chords, no doubt experimenting different progressions.

“C major to… D major?” the guitarist mumbled, plucking the two chords.

Jaehwan perked up in interest. This guy was composing an original song, and Jaehwan had to admit, it sounded decent so far, though he seemed to be at a stand still, playing with different progressions to no avail.

The voice sounded like it was coming from a nearby open window. Squinting, Jaehwan could make out the vague outline of a boy hunched over a desk with a guitar in his lap.

“How about an E7 chord?” Jaehwan suggested, half hoping that the guitarist couldn’t hear him.

All noise from the open window stopped. Then the mellow strumming resumed, this time changing from the C chord to E7. Jaehwan smiled in satisfaction; the instrumental flowed seamlessly and provided the perfect backdrop to the vocal melody.

“Either I’m a crazy composing genius or someone’s stalking on me,” the guitarist mused. His silhouette bobbed around, no doubt searching for his helper.

“None of the above,” Jaehwan responded, moving as close as he could to the window. “More like, _I’m_ a crazy composing genius who incidentally happens to be stuck in a tree near your room.” There was a small pause in which the guitarist attempted to process what Jaehwan had said. “Please help me get down.”

“Wait, what? You’re in a tree?”

“Yes. Right outside your window.”

“Why are you in a tree outside my window?”

“Gee, I don’t know, I just really love trees, I guess.”

Upon seeing the guitarist push away the curtains shielding the window, Jaehwan felt the snarky comment disappear on his tongue because, _oh shit_  Jung Sewoon was staring directly at him, guitar still hanging from his neck. When he saw Sewoon’s face, the sleepy eyes and lips perpetually curved upwards, Jaehwan wanted nothing more than to fall from his place on the branch and maybe die.

From the few occasions they had encountered each other in class, Jaehwan had gleaned that Sewoon was a bit younger than him, somehow managed to double major in music performance and business, and unnecessarily cute.

“Jaehwan?” Sewoon said, face scrunched up in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m…” Jaehwan struggled to find the words. Sewoon’s questioning eyes, head flicked delicately to the right, were too much right now. Jaehwan wanted to flick his own forehead for stumbling over his words. Normally, he had no problem conjuring a sarcastic remark without so much as a second thought, but the boy standing in front of him was just so earnest, and genuine, and sincere, that the words died in Jaehwan’s mouth.

“Do you need help?” Sewoon offered.

Jaehwan wanted to scream. _No, don’t do that, don’t be perfect and frustrating like you always you are. I would literally rather freeze to death in this tree branch than humiliate myself further in front of you. And the worst thing is that you’re just genuinely too nice to laugh at me, and it’s infuriating._ But, since Sewoon was still looking at him with a gaze that made him feel as though his body was transparent, Jaehwan gave a noncommittal shrug in assent.

“Okay, I’ll be there soon,” Sewoon said. He retreated into his room and seconds later appeared through the front door in all his flannel-wearing, messy-haired glory. He positioned himself at the bottom of the tree. “So, how is this gonna work?”

Jaehwan wanted this over and done with as soon as possible so he could return home and collapse on his bed into a ball of self-inflicted embarrassment and E7 chords. “I could, like, jump,” he proposed.

“No way, you’ll hurt yourself,” Sewoon protested immediately, and Jaehwan was caught in between swooning because Sewoon was sweet or crying because Sewoon was only prolonging Jaehwan’s misery. “Here, I think you can use those branches to step down. I’ll catch you if you slip.”

Jaehwan hesitated. The thing about Jaehwan and being drunk was that, while he was still perfectly able to form coherent thoughts, speak freely, and even compose music, his body coordination was shot. (See: dancing terribly to _Boom Boom_ , losing a strenuous game of athletic beer pong to Minki.) Even sober, he was a lost cause. Hell, Jaehwan couldn’t even climb the rock wall in high school gym class. There was no doubt in Jaehwan’s mind that maneuvering through winding tree branches would lead to a broken bone.

“Hey, are you okay?” Sewoon called, arms already poised to catch Jaehwan if he falled.

“Um. Yeah, I’m coming,” Jaehwan said. If he was going to die, he at least trusted Sewoon to handle the aftermath.

The first few steps were Jaehwan blindly kicking the air in search of a stable branch to set his weight on. Progress was slow and excruciating, and Jaehwan remained hyper-aware of Sewoon beneath him. About halfway through the decline, two hands crept onto Jaehwan’s waist to balance his precarious position. Jaehwan went red at the pressure on his skin, heat rushing up the sides of his face, and the inevitable clumsiness emerged.

His foot had slipped, and now Jaehwan lay half on the ground, half on Sewoon.

“God, sorry, are you okay?” Jaehwan rolled off the other boy and plopped onto the grass.

“I’m fine,” Sewoon said, brushing off some dirt off his clothes. “So, you never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“How did you end up in a tree right next to where I live?”

Immediately Jaehwan’s mind raced for a plausible answer to put Sewoon’s questions to rest. Telling Sewoon the truth would only mortify Jaehwan further. There was a cute cat stuck in the tree, and Jaehwan being the all-around swell guy he was climbed the tree to help. He was scouting locations to build a treehouse for his nonexistent little sister. He was secretly a wood nymph and the tree he lived in coincidentally happened to be located in Sewoon’s back yard.

“I got really drunk and for some reason decided to climb in a tree. I had no idea this was where you lived,” Jaehwan blurted out the truth. Before he could stop himself, he continued to explain, “There was a party earlier. But like halfway through Minhyun was hanging out with his other friends, so I was alone. And, I mean, I didn’t wanna be that one who loser sits by himself with no one else to talk to, so I left. Don’t get me wrong, though, I’m not saying that Minhyun should have stayed with me. I just felt lonely. I kind of sat there for a while, had a small existential crisis, and wondered why I felt so lonely when I was surrounded by so many people, but it was just, whatever, I guess. I think I’m sober now.”

Jaehwan stopped talking and swallowed. The words had come avalanching out of his mouth, like some kind of natural disaster he had no control over. For the second time that night, Jaehwan was struck by the urgent desire to _die_. The entire time Sewoon had remained silent with his head tilted up toward the night sky.

“You don’t have to be lonely,” Sewoon said in a pleasant, unaffected tone.

“No, I choose to be lonely because I love having no friends,” Jaehwan snapped before he could stop himself. Right after the words had been said Jaehwan wanted to swallow them back in. “Sorry,” he said lamely.

Sewoon remained placid on the ground, and his neutral expression hadn’t budged a centimeter. “Actually, I think you’re right. You do choose to be lonely, but not because you love having no friends. You’re always so rude and sarcastic to others because you’re afraid they’ll get close to you, and you’re afraid that if you get too close to someone, you’ll just get hurt in the end. But I don’t think you particularly enjoy living that way. So choose not to be lonely. You can start with helping me compose this song, yeah?”

It was in this moment when Jaehwan realized several things:

  1. Sewoon had said all of that in one breath.
  2. Sewoon had identified and pummelled Jaehwan’s deepest insecurities that he himself had trouble acknowledging.
  3. Jaehwan felt like all of his vulnerabilities were bared to the world now that Sewoon was looking directly at him.
  4. Number 1 actually made sense, since Sewoon was a singer and obviously had great breath control.
  5. Jaehwan was currently safe, down from the tree, his phone was somewhere on the sidewalk where it had fell earlier, and there was absolutely nothing stopping him from running away from his emotional distress and Sewoon’s soft gaze that was currently eating Jaehwan alive.
  6. No, there was something stopping him from avoiding his problems, and that something was five feet and eight inches of Jung Sewoon lying directly beside him, heartfelt stare and all.
  7. Or was this all just an elaborate ploy for Sewoon to enlist Jaehwan’s help working on his song?



Flustered, Jaehwan brought his hands to his face. “Okay,” he mumbled. “I’ll help you with your song.”

Sewoon’s eyebrows raised, and an air of satisfaction settled on his face. Both of them knew that Jaehwan’s agreement to helping Sewoon was more than just that. It was Jaehwan finally allowing himself to live without the constant fear of getting hurt plaguing his every move, Jaehwan finally spending time with his friends outside of class, and maybe, it was Jaehwan’s chance to get to know Sewoon, the strangely endearing underclassman in his music composition class.

“Okay. So, how did you figure all of that out about me just now?” Jaehwan asked.

“I’m just really good at analyzing people. I wanna be a CEO in the future,” Sewoon shrugged. “And, also, I sometimes watch you in class.”

Jaehwan laughed, something that he rarely allowed himself to do in front of others. “Why? Because I’m handsome and cool and everything you aspire to be?” he joked.

“The first two things, yes. The last, no,” Sewoon replied, his refreshing honesty catching Jaehwan off-guard for the umpteenth time that night. “Hey, you’re not still drunk, are you?”

“I don’t think so,” Jaehwan replied. “Why?”

“We could start working on that song right now, but I don’t know if you’re feeling up to it.” Sewoon stood, offering a hand to help Jaehwan up. They began to walk to the front door.

“Hey, you underestimate me. I’m perfectly functional when drunk,” Jaehwan protested.

“Oh, yeah, I could see that since you literally got _stuck in a tree_. Totally functional,” Sewoon teased.

“Honestly, you should be thankful. If I didn’t get stuck in that tree you would still be attempting to write that song.”

“Yeah. I guess you can’t always dance to _Boom Boom_ when you’re drunk. You need variety.”

Jaehwan almost keeled over in embarrassment. “ _Listen_.”

A few minute later, sitting cross-legged in Sewoon’s room, hunched over a notebook, and occasionally brushing hands with Sewoon, Jaehwan decided that this was quite possibly the best night he has experienced in his entire life.

**Author's Note:**

> ok but take a drink every time i describe sewoon with the word "soft"
> 
> title comes from the song thinking out loud by ed sheeran.
> 
> this was meant to be fluffier and shorter, but as i was writing i put in more angst (i love angst and suffering).
> 
> please leave a comment letting me know what you think!


End file.
